Wellington mayors split over proposal for water meters in homes across the region
Monday, 23 November 2020
The push for water meters to be installed in every home in Wellington to prevent future shortages has been labelled a “no brainer” by one of the region's mayors, while another has described it as “false hope”.
A Wellington Water report recommended the region spend $144 million on infrastructure which would allow it to record and report on residents' daily-water usage, in a bid to encourage residents to save water and prevent drought-like shortages
Without introducing water meters, water usage was expected to exceed drought-level supply by 2026 based on current consumption, the amount of water lost to leaks and projected population growth, the Ernst Young and Beca report warned.
It did not specify whether residents would be charged per cubic metre of water, but noted that the proposal would reduce residential water use by 2.5 per cent, reduce water lost through leaks by 7.2 per cent and save tens of millions of dollars in the long run.
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The issue of water charges has been a political football in Wellington local government for more than a decade.
Kāpiti Coast and South Wairarapa councils already charge residents based on their usage. Wellington City, Upper Hutt, Hutt City and Porirua charge a flat fee.
After the release of the report mayors across the region remained divided over the issue.
Porirua Mayor Anita Baker said she supported the introduction of universal water meters.
The current system, which saw people with swimming pools pay the same amount for water as a small single-person household, was unfair, she said.
Lower Hutt Mayor Campbell Barry agreed the region needed to reduce its water consumption but opposed charging them at a volumetric rate.
“I think that we can see other models around the country that have worked where [there] really is a focus of finding leaks,” Barry said, pointing to Christchurch as an example of how Wellington could measure residential water use but still charge a flat fee.
He said residents should be consulted before a decision was made on water meters.
Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy agreed residents should have a say. However, he was personally opposed to a user-pays scheme.
“My issue is at the end of the day it is effectively about false hope. We need to be planning and building water storage facilities [instead].”
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster said if water meters were used only for monitoring their benefits would be “relatively marginal”.
However, the report left many questions about how it would work unanswered and communities needed to be involved in the decision, he said.
Kāpiti Coast District Council introduced water metering and charging in 2014 and saw a 26 per cent drop in overall water use over the following year with two-thirds of homes in the district ending up paying less for water under the metering system.
Kāpiti Mayor K Gurunathan said: “It's inevitable that other councils come on board. It's an absolute no brainer.”
South Wairarapa Mayor Alex Beijen said it was “inevitable” that the wider Wellington region would eventually follow his district's lead on water meters as without such a measure Wellington could end up in the same boat as Auckland, which has been in the throes of drought since 2019.